


I wanna tell you what I feel (and really mean it)

by cold_nights_summer_days



Series: Anchor [6]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adopted Peter Parker, Comfortember, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker Calls Tony Stark "Dad", Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Uncle James "Rhodey" Rhodes, afraid to sleep, almost, anyway, day six!, god why can i never remember how to use tags, i'm still doing it y'all!, peter parker is afraid of sleeping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:09:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27419326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cold_nights_summer_days/pseuds/cold_nights_summer_days
Summary: Day Six: Afraid to Sleep - Tony has to go away for a few days on his first mission since having Peter in his life, and neither of them are exactly happy about it.----title from End of Time by Alan Walker (yes, another one xD)
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Anchor [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1996039
Comments: 11
Kudos: 198
Collections: Comfortember 2020, The Best Irondad/Spiderson Fics, The Best Peter Parker Whump Fics





	I wanna tell you what I feel (and really mean it)

**Author's Note:**

> hellooooooooooo! I am back and honestly surprised that I've been able to keep this up for almost a week. I'm honestly pretty proud of myself. anyways, I was super tired when I wrote this last night so if it doesn't make sense then it probably has more to do with me than you xD
> 
> hope you guys enjoy!

Tony ignored the first call that came through. And the second. And quite possibly the third. Why? Because who the fuck calls someone three times in the middle of the night when they’re trying to sleep. Who is this mysterious caller who wasn’t sleeping when they should have been?

Turns out it was Nick Fury, who gave Tony quite the earful when he finally answered the phone to angrily say, “It’s three in the morning, stop calling me!”

 _“I wouldn’t have had to call so many damn times if you’d answered the first one,”_ Fury griped back. Tony did not want to talk to, or even remotely deal with, Fury right now.

“What’s so important that it couldn’t wait until later? I swear if this is about the Accords—”

_“It’s not. I have a mission for you.”_

“I don’t know if you watch the news, Fury, but I can’t just leave in the middle of the night for a secret mission. I have a kid now, remember?”

_“I know, but there’s no one else who can pick this up. A quinjet will be there to pick you up in an hour, and you should probably pack a bag for a few days. I don’t know how this will work out.”_

_“I can’t,”_ Tony replied. He couldn’t leave Peter here by himself for three days, and he wasn’t going to ask Pepper to make sure he was alright. He didn’t think she’d try anything, obviously, but Peter had accidentally overheard one of their conversations before and Tony didn’t want to put him in an awkward position.

_“He can stay here at Shield for a few days, or you can make other arrangements. Sorry, Stark, but there aren’t any other options.”_

Tony huffed and hung up the phone. Despite wanting to do nothing more than close his eyes and go back to sleep, he forced himself to get out of bed and pull a duffle bag out of the closet. Grumbling the whole time, he pulled out shirts and pants and everything else a person needed to survive for a few days.

He was also trying to figure out who he could call to come stay for a few days. Pepper was already out – plus she was in Dubai for a business deal anyway – and he was not taking Fury up on his offer. Tony didn’t want there to be any chance for Shield to figure out Peter’s abilities.

The only option left was Rhodey. He was upstate for physical therapy, which meant that he could be here on time. It was only a few days, and Peter wasn’t a difficult kid (no matter how CPS wanted to label him).

Tony pulled his phone out to call Rhodey once he’d finished packing. Luckily, Rhodey picked up on the third ring.

“So honestly I’m a bit worried that you answered in the middle of the night, but also grateful because I need you to do something for me,” Tony said by way of greeting.

 _“Hello, Tony. I’m great, thanks for asking Tony,”_ Rhodey greeted back.

“Sorry.”

_“It’s fine, I’m just nagging. What do you need?”_

“Can you come watch my kid for a few days?” Tony wasn’t exactly why he was nervous to ask that question. He knew that Rhodey was going to say yes.

_“When?”_

“Like right now? Fury just called me and needs me to go out on a mission for a few days. I don’t have any one to stay with Peter while I’m gone, and I don’t want to ship him off to Shield because I don’t necessarily trust them with him.”

 _“Oh, um, sure. I probably wouldn’t trust them either, especially with—well, you know.”_ Tony had confided in Rhodey about Peter’s new powers almost as soon as they’d happened, desperately looking for advice on what to do about them.

“So, you can do it?”

_“Yeah. I’ll be there in about an hour.”_

Tony thanked him and hung up the phone. He quietly took his bag out to the living room and set it on the couch before heading back down the hall to Peter’s room. He hated to wake him up at this hour, especially since he was actually asleep, but he wasn’t going to disappear for three days without saying goodbye.

He knocked on the door, only to find Peter standing on the other side mid-yawn with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders.

“What’s happening?” He asked, yawning again. Tony’s heart practically melted at the sight, which made it that much harder to leave for the next three days. Tony wasn’t nervous about Rhodey watching his kid for the next three days, he was nervous about leaving him for the next three days.

“I have to go on a mission, but I shouldn’t be gone for more than a few days,” Tony explained. Peter’s sleep addled brain did it’s best to understand him, but it still took a few moments. Once he realized what that meant, he asked:

“Do you have to?”

And damn if that didn’t make Tony feel worse about having to leave. He sighed and pulled Peter into a tight hug.

“Yeah, I have to. Trust me, I’d definitely rather stay home with you than do whatever dirty work Fury has planned.”

“Do I—where am I gonna stay while you’re gone?”

“Rhodey is coming down from the compound right now. I know you haven’t really spent time with him before, but—”

“You mean I get to hang out with the Colonel Rhodes?!” Peter said excitedly, voice slightly muffled in Tony’s shirt.

“Seriously? I’m Iron Man, and you’re more excited to meet Rhodey?”

“He’s literally War Machine!”

“I’m literally Iron Man!”

“Yeah, but you’re like my dad, so it doesn’t really count,” Peter said, and Tony felt his heart palpitate. What a bad time to have such a big moment, especially because Peter probably wasn’t awake enough to know he’d even said it.

“Mmmm, okay,” Tony said, holding on for only a moment longer. He expected Peter to go back to bed, but instead he followed him out to the living room where he collapsed on the couch in a mess of blankets and limbs. Peter just watched him tiredly while he moved about the living room, grabbing a jacket from the closet and slipping on a pair of sneakers.

Rhodey came up in the elevator forty minutes later, said a quick hello to his best friend, and then walked to the guest bedroom down the hall. Peter was now passed out on the couch. Instead of leaving him to get a crick in his neck later that morning, Tony scooped him up easily and carried him back to his room.

Just as promised, Fury was waiting on the helipad with a quinjet. Tony definitely didn’t forget to shoot a glare his way.

The next night, Peter didn’t want to sleep. Well, he wanted to sleep, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t sleep because he was worried that if he was asleep, he would miss something and Tony would get hurt and—Peter was worried, to say the least.

He decided to go to the living room and watch TV to waste time until he was tired enough to simply pass out. He found Rhodey also sitting on the couch when he got out there, but he wasn’t watching anything.

“Hi,” Peter greeted awkwardly, stopping at the end of the hallway. Rhodey turned around with concern on his face.

"First time?” He asked. When Peter didn’t answer, he clarified by saying, “First time having someone you care about on a mission, I mean.”

“Yeah,” Peter nodded. Rhodey patted the space on the couch beside him, and Peter moved to sit with him. “I don’t know why it’s bothering me so much, though. Tony’s been doing this for years, you know?”

“Well, before you didn’t really know him as anything other than a superhero. Now he’s—” Rhodey paused, unsure of how to refer to him. He didn’t know if him and Peter had had the whole “dad” talk yet, or if they were ever going to.

“Now that you guys are closer it’s different because you have something to worry about losing. It’s a whole lot different when there’s a person behind the mask that you actually know.”

“What if something happens?” Peter asked, voice small. Rhodey could see the fear – the actual, raw fear – in his eyes at even the mention that Tony wouldn’t come home.

“He’ll make it through alright. He’s too stubborn to do otherwise.” Rhodey assured him. Peter nodded like he didn’t quite believe him.

“I just – what if something does happen, though, and I don’t get to—I don’t want something to happen before I actually get the chance to—” Peter stopped.

“Before you get to what?” Rhodey coaxed gently. Peter took a deep breath and forced the words out before he could have the chance to regret it.

“Before I get the chance to tell him that I think of him like my dad. I mentioned it earlier and it’s like he just froze and I— I don’t know. I don’t want it to be weird but I don’t want something to happen before I get the chance to really say it. What if I do say it and then he gets mad?”

 _Ah_ , Rhodey thought, _they in fact have not had that talk yet, but it doesn’t seem to be for lack of effort._

“He won’t be mad,” Rhodey said confidently. “I’m pretty sure he’d be thrilled, actually.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Rhodey smiled. “He already refers to you as his kid. I think you’re both already there. You just need a little nudge in the right direction.”

“But what if I make it weird?”

“You won’t.”

“But what if I do?”

“You won’t,” Rhodey repeated. Peter wasn’t quite convinced, but he took his word for it anyway. He didn’t think Rhodey would lie to him, or at least not without a good reason, so he didn’t have a reason not to trust him.

“Thank you,” Peter said sincerely. Rhodey assured him that it was no problem.

“This means that I get to be the cool uncle, right?”

“Yeah,” Peter laughed lightly. “I guess it does.”

Two days later, Tony arrived home with only minor scrapes and bruises. Peter felt the major weight that had settled on his shoulders over the past few days lift, and he couldn’t have been more grateful that that terrible feeling was gone.

When Tony had stepped through the front door, Peter hadn’t hesitated in jumping off the couch and nearly crushing him with a hug. Tony dropped his duffle bag at his feet and hugged him back just as fiercely.

Rhodey watched it all unfold quietly from the couch. He was glad that his best friend had decided to take in Peter even after Pepper advised against it. Not only did it prove his point that he could still be a great father even after all the shit his own had put him through, it gave him another reason to make it home.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading <3 I'd love to hear your thoughts/opinions on this one (and if you have any possible requests for the upcoming oneshots, I'm all ears ;) 
> 
> If you want to read more, check out/subscribe to the series!
> 
> [Here's my tumblr! ](https://funky--lil--spider.tumblr.com/)  
>    
> Also, I've opened my comissions if you'd be interested in that!
> 
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